New Day For Rogers Park Road

Sheridan Remake Taking Shape

November 18, 1994|By Larry Hartstein Tribune Staff Writer.

Sheridan Road in Rogers Park has not been declared one long construction zone. It only looks that way.

Under an intensive, four-month beautification project paid for by the city and Loyola University, workers are repaving about 66,000 square feet of sidewalks, replacing 7,200 square yards of sod, building higher curbs to protect gardens, planting 116 trees and installing benches and trash cans at bus stops. Plans also call for installing classic-looking streetlights and curved safety walls at the north and south entrances to Rogers Park.

Then there's the topper. On the streetlights, workers will be mounting more than 40 banners with a brand-new Rogers Park logo.

The predominantly green, blue and white signs show a circle of hands, supported by waves and a tree trunk. Surrounding the logo will be the words "Rogers Park" and the slogan "Sheridan Road: Main Street on the Lake."

The banners "will give people more of a sense of community," Burton Reif, chairman of the Sheridan Road Planning and Development Committee, said Thursday after a ceremony in Loyola Park marking the beautification. "It will express what Rogers Park is about."

The project, expected to cost more than $1.5 million and scheduled for completion in January, will give Sheridan Road "a better feel," Reif said. "It will encourage people to walk through the community."

The beautification project is only the latest step in a 10-year effort to preserve the character of Sheridan Road from Devon Avenue to the city limits, Rogers Park community leaders say. In the 1980s, they said, developers targeted that stretch for strip malls, high-rise apartment buildings and fast-food restaurants, prompting residents to mobilize.

"We didn't want Sheridan Road to become a glitter strip, comparable to Western Avenue, with all the flashing lights," said Reif, a lawyer and lifelong Rogers Park resident. "Something had to be done."

Dorothy Gregory, a member of the planning committee, said the high-rises presented "a definite risk."

"They have an incredible density and are a barrier to the lakefront," she said.

In 1991, the Sheridan Road Planning and Development Committee, composed mostly of Rogers Park residents, persuaded the Chicago City Council to adopt zoning amendments that encourage small businesses, such as ice-cream stores, book stores and bakeries, on Sheridan Road while preventing high-rises. In 1993 Ald. Joe Moore (49th) included the beautification project in his capital improvement program, and city funding was approved.

In addition, Loyola University is contributing an unspecified "six-figure" sum and has pledged to maintain the southern entrance at Devon Avenue "in perpetuity."

Future plans call for reconfiguring traffic signals to allow pedestrians more time to cross Sheridan Road. Senior citizens have complained that the lights change too quickly.